Syncopation
by keemax
Summary: "Jeez, is she on her period or something?" that was it. That was the last straw. Rated T for paranoia.


**This is just a random one shot based off something that happened to me at school.**

**Well, the music lesson part anyway...  
**

**No pairing, just friendship. If you can even call it that...  
**

**Also, this is my first humor fic, so if it's not funny then just flat out tell me. I don't bite.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

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"Okay class," the teacher said excitedly while checking the clock. "In the last five minutes of our lesson we're going to play a game."

Artemis Crock, who was sitting at the back of the class, rolled her eyes. Currently, she was reaching the end of her music lesson, period 5, just over an hour to go until the end of the school day.

In Artemis' opinion, Mr. Blake's weekly music class was an hour of her time completely wasted.

She didn't hate music per say, she just wasn't good at it. Sure, she could read several clefs and tell you which notes were which, but when it came to actually playing an instrument or defining or using musical language or anything else that went past just reading a clef, well, to say she failed at it would be putting it lightly. Unfortunately, music was part of the curriculum here at Gotham Academy. Artemis could drop the subject in a couple months if she wanted to (which she did) but the only reason she had to take it in the first place was because some _genius_ had suggested that Artemis take **_all_** the subjects for the first few months, just to try them out. After that, she could pick and chose the ones she liked. Though on paper this idea might be seen as logical and reasonable, in practice however, it was not. What it meant was Artemis having to take _every single subject_ GA had to offer, Which meant carrying around **_all_** the books, doing **_all_ **the homework and passing **_all_** the tests. If she wanted to stay in the school and keep her grades up, that is.

And on top of all that, she's got Batman and the team to commit to as well. They've been given more missions lately which meant **more** late nights and training even harder. Artemis didn't want to disappoint her mother, but at the same time she didn't want to disappoint Bats either. (He'd probably kick her off the team if she did). Since she still has a few months to go before she can drop some subjects, Artemis had a sinking feeling that this would turn out to be quite a big problem.

Thing is, it wouldn't be a problem if she had more _time_. When she gets home at four o'clock she has exactly two hours the try and finish all her homework and study for whatever test she has (there's _always_ a test) before she has to leave for Mount Justice at six o'clock. Two hours might seem like plenty of time to get everything done, but as said before, she's taking _**all**_ the subjects, which means she has a steadily rising pile of homework and each assignment takes at _least_ half an hour, if not longer. And it's not like she can wake up early and get stuff done either. That would be losing precious sleep and with no sleep Artemis wouldn't even be able to function throughout the day _at all_.

If she ever finds out who's _brilliant_ idea it was to give her more schoolwork, she swore she'd kill them for adding that extra layer of _hell_ to her life.

"I'm going to write a music related word on the board and one person will have to sit with their back to it." Mr. Blake continued, giving the whole class a wide grin. "That person will then try and guess which word it is. Of course the rest of you are allowed to give them hints, but you are not allowed to tell them the word. You got that? Good. Okay who wants to go first?"

About half the class raised their hands, which was good because Artemis had no intention of playing this ridiculous version of a game she was almost certain she had taken part in when she was in kindergarten. Besides, she had no talent in music and she didn't particularly _want_ the entire class bitching at her because she couldn't guess the damn word.

Artemis lost interest after a few people got up to have their turn. She began to plan out what she needed to do when she got home. French homework first, because she spoke it fluently so it should take her less than five minutes, then Biology, Music, Physics, Math and she _might_ have five minutes to make a start on her English essay about-

"Let's see how about ... ah, Artemis would you like to have a turn?"

Having been ripped out of the previous thoughts, Artemis blinked, momentarily forgetting that this was in fact a teacher she was talking to when she blurted out:

"NO!"

Mr. Blake raised and eyebrow at her and the entire class has turned around in their chairs to give her a weird look. "I mean, uh, no thank you I don't really want to." she quickly corrected herself.

It was not uncommon for there to be a difference in personality between a superheroes' alias and their secret identity. When put on, the mask seemed to create a whole new person. Artemis the superhero was blunt with her thoughts and feelings and topped it all off with an 'I don't have to prove anything, I'm one of a kind' attitude. Artemis Crock, however, was quite the opposite. As a civilian she kept most things to herself and was generally very quiet. She avoided other human beings like the plague and did her best to support mother. Sometimes Artemis herself found that she didn't know which was the mask and which was reality. As of right now, she wanted to be Artemis the superhero. She wanted to march right out of the class room and tell her teacher to go to hell because she wasn't in the mood for any of his stupid games.

But she wasn't Artemis the superhero at the moment, she was Artemis Crock.

And Artemis Crock couldn't afford to get a bad grade because she'd yelled at a teacher.

The other students turned back around to face the front, seemingly satisfied with her answer. Mr. Blake however, was not.

"Are you sure Artemis?" his eyebrow raised even further, "You will get help from the other students." a few of her classmates snickered.

"No." she said simply, because it wasn't a big deal, it was just a game. "No, I'm sure. I really don't want to have a go."

"Okay," Mr. Blake frowned. "Jade, you have a turn then."

Jade - beach blonde hair and green eyes- walked over to the smart board and took a seat in front of it. Mr. Blake clicked the mouse on the computer and the word that Jade now had to guess appeared on the board.

Syncopation - the displacement of the usual rhythmic accent away from a strong beat onto a weak beat.

Yeah, Artemis never would have guessed that in a million years.

Like a miracle, the bell rings and she hurriedly packed her things. Her next lesson was Math, with a cranky teacher who screamed at you if you were (not kidding) two seconds late. Not that Artemis actually cares, more like she doesn't particularly want to lose her temper on school grounds. And right about now, being yelled at for being a few seconds late would probably cause her to lose it. She was almost out the door when:

"Artemis, can I talk to you for a second?" said Mr. Blake. It wasn't a question, it's not like she could just say 'No, I'm late!' and run off. So she nodded and stayed behind as the rest of the class left.

"Now, why do you think I've asked you to stay after the lesson?"

"Uhhh..." Honestly, she had no idea. There were some students that had come to the lesson about half an hour late, yet he hadn't asked _them_ to stay behind after the lesson. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" he seemed disappointed, "Try thinking about something that happened during today's lesson."

Artemis shook her head in response. Overall it had been a pretty boring lesson, nothing particularly eventful happened. Aaaaaaaand there goes the bell, now she's late for Math.

He frowned at her. "You didn't want to play my game."

Wait... THAT'S what this is about?

"I know you're not the best at music," he continued.

Understatement of the year.

"But I think you could have at least given it a shot Artemis."

"I'm sorry Mr. Blake," Artemis apologized, stealing a glance at the clock. Three minutes late and her math class is on the other side of the school. She needed to leave NOW. "I just really didn't want to."

"Yes, but _why_ didn't you want to?"

Let's see ... she's horrible at music, she doesn't like working with other people, the 'hints' that were being given weren't very helpful (For example, shouting out that the third letter of the word you're trying to guess is somewhere in onomatopoeia, that's not helpful), she wouldn't be able to guess the word and because of that she'd have 15 people bitching at her for the rest of the day, which is very idiotic because none of it matters because it's _just a game_. And a dumb one at that. So what if she didn't want to play the game? She doesn't see any disaster with not wanting to.

Of course she couldn't _say_ all that.

So instead she muttered: "I'm not good at music so I wouldn't have been any good at the game." Can she leave for her math class now?

"You don't have to be good at music to play a game. The other students would've given you hints to help you."

No. No they wouldn't have. Artemis isn't exactly what one would call _popular_, here at GA. Not that she wanted to be. Oh, _hell_ no. She didn't even want to go _near_ those kids.

"Look, Artemis, you need to have more of an open mind about these things. You need to step out of your comfort zone a bit."

No.

He's got to be kidding.

This was originally about her not wanting to play a game and now he's giving her a speech about open-mindedness and trying new things.

That's just not on.

"You will get _nowhere_ in life if you are scared of trying anything new," Mr. Blake continued. "Think about you're future."

Oh, come on! She doesn't need this! She's already ten minutes late for her math class and the only excuse she has for being late is having to listen to an extremely cliched (and horrible) speech given to her by her music teacher.

"Umm, Mr. Blake?" Artemis piped up, hoping to draw his attention to the fact that he's making her late. But there was no such luck, Mr. Blake continued to ramble on and on about the qualities of life and she's apparently doomed the world by not wanting to participate in a game in her music class.

However, she failed to notice a black haired and blue eyed freshman, looking through the window into to classroom, laughing his ass off at her expense.

**ooo**

It shouldn't have pissed her off.

It _really_ shouldn't have.

It wasn't a big deal.

Yet here Artemis was, in the training room in Mount Justice, destroying a punching bag.

She wasn't mad because her music teacher picked on her to play a game when he _knew_ she was bad at music and he fucking _knew_ which word was coming up next (syncopation, really? Like she ever would've guessed _that_). That irked her a bit, but it didn't make her angry. What actually pissed her off was the fact that he asked her to stay _after_ the lesson to talk about it. Especially since, as mentioned before, there were several students who came in around half and hour late with half-assed attempts at excuses. (One boy claimed to have gotten lost on the way from his locker to the lesson. Bullshit. The lockers were right outside the classroom door). And Mr. Blake doesn't ask _them_ to stay behind and explain to him where they were for half and hour, _no_, he asks _her_ because she didn't want to play his stupid game! On top of that, he turns the conversation from 'Artemis refusing to play a game' to 'Life choices and having an open mind'. For crying out loud, Artemis was the daughter of a _criminal_ and she decided to become a _hero_. _That_ should qualify as having an open mind.

And she's pretty sure punching bags aren't supposed to look like that.

As she drags the demolished punching bag to the designated corner of the room for all broken equipment, she decides that she best stay away from everyone else so she doesn't lose her temper. The Crock family were notorious for having, well, explosive and _deadly_ tempers. If a Crock yells 'I'm gonna kill you!' at some person when said Crock is angry, that person had better start running for their life.

Unfortunately, Dr. Fate seemed to have it in for her today because she entered the living room to the sound of:

"Look, there's Harpy. Let's ask her!"

"Hey Arty!"

Artemis turned around only to find herself looking at the wide grins of Robin and Wally. She scowled at them.

"Go away." she snapped.

Robin pouted, "That's not nice." he complained.

"I don't care." she could feel her temper rising. So she began to walk down the hallway to her room.

"Can you just-"

"No."

"But we just need you to-"

"No."

"Can we at least ask you if-"

"NO!" Artemis whirled around, "CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?" she roared at them. Both of their expressions looked similar to that of a frightened rabbit. Robin even looked a little hurt and it almost made her regret yelling at them.

Almost.

She turned on her heel and marched down the hall. And it's when she's at her room door and her hand is on the knob and she's about to open it, that she hears Wally say:

"Jeez, is she on her period or something?"

That was it.

That was the last straw.

Her last nerve ... gone.

The archer freezes and asks in a low voice, "What. Did. You. Just. Say?"

**ooo**

Later that evening, Batman entered Mount. Justice to a very ... _interesting_ scene.

Several pieces of furniture were overturned, various items like lampshades, coasters and pillows were thrown about the place and there were arrows embedded in many of the walls.

It's then that he spots Red Tornado and he made his way over to the android to ask what's going on.

"Artemis lost her temper and has been chasing Wally and Robin around the cave for several hours." was the reply and Batman wondered if he should get involved, when Wally ran into the room, screaming like a little girl.

Then Robin made an appearance, swinging by on his grappling hook, looking around desperately for a place to hide. The Boy Wonder then spotted the Bat and opened his mouth to say something when two arrows flew out of the hallway, aimed for his and Wally's heads.

This was accompanied with a shout of : "Fucking DIE!" no doubt from Artemis. They miss their mark by about a millimeter.

The Dark Knight just nodded and took the zeta tube back to the BatCave.

Alfred was going to need to prepare the first aid kit.

* * *

**And the moral of the story is: never make a Crock lose their temper**

**Sorry for any OOC ness**

**- Keemax**


End file.
